Sunday, June 24, 2018

The magic touch of Tan Sri Vincent Tan

KUALA LUMPUR: The controversial China-backed East Coast Railway Line (ECRL) project has been given a reprieve from the government as RM20 billion of the project cost has already been paid, subject to a re-negotiation of the price tag, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told online news portal The Malaysian Insight.

Earlier the PH Government had announced plans to scrap the project because of its exorbitant cost of RM60-RM70 billion, which various estimates claimed could be completed for under RM40 billion.

Lim was also quoted as saying in the interview with the news portal that the government was “still undecided” on whether to proceed or defer the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR).

Prior to further discussion with Singapore, Lim said the Attorney-General had been tasked to investigate the legal aspects of the projects.

“In the ECRL, we have already paid RM20 billion. So it doesn’t really make sense to just scrap it because we’ve already paid RM20 billion,” Lim reportedly said.

Lim, however, could not reveal the terms of the ECRL contract and how much recduction in cost the government was trying to negotiate.

“Let us discuss this first. We cannot have these discussions in public. The negotiations have to be done behind closed doors.”

In an earlier media report Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad described the ECRL project as a strange contract, as Malaysia has to fund the project with a loan from China, while also hiring contractors from China, as opposed to drawing down the loan in Malaysia and paying it to the foreign company’s local subsidiary.

Congratulations to Tan Sri Vincent Tan whose Syarikat T7 Global will now prosper with the Malaysian government's decision to un-cancel the proposed cancellation of, and thus to continue with, the ECRL.

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn.But where is the boy, who looks after the sheep?He's under a haystack, he's fast asleep.Will you wake him? No, not I,For if I do, he's sure to cry. for Nga Kor Ming

30 comments:

Incredible, 6 days after PH winning GE14 and the announcement of the ECRL project was in doubt, Vincent Tan went on a buying spree into T7? Now that the project is "revived" V Tan becomes the biggest winner. This is called [edited out]. All along the project was NOT cancelled but now "revived" and [edited out] V Tan, for shall we say 70 billion? The amount of around 55 billion is too expensive under China but now it is affordable even at 70 billion?

Monsterball, likewise is TS Vincent not buying HSR from YTL, Gamuda, TH, etc too? It makes sense because HSR is stopping at Batu Pahat. Perhaps, a number of Batu Pahat-ians corporates have already bought landed properties along the HSR corridor. It is only RM100.0 billion. I am sure the KLCI will shoot up. There will be a lot of billionaires. Everybody will be happy.

"Its a very different ball game with China. Offending the PRC Government will have dire consequences for the Malaysia economy"

Finance Twitter describes how China has squeezed the testicles of a South Korean company Lotte in China to get it to pressure the South Korean government to reject the U.S. Army's THAAD in South Korea.

When ECRL is under BN rule, its whacked as a waste of money and the PM was selling the country to China.

When ECRL is under PH rule, with the crony changing hands, suddenly now its no longer a waste of money and more importantly its no longer Mahathir selling the country to China.

Something is wrong with the logic there, but meh, as long Kelantan & Terengganu reaps the benefits no matter who runs it now. It will carry Green Wave over onto the next states and onwards to the whole country.

The situation is no different from what I said back in April and also on May 11.

a) ECRL was negotiated with Neo-colonial terms by Najib, probably with a massive siphoning off of funds in mind.

b) The New administration probably has no choice but to continue with the project under duress ...because the project is part of wider PRC Government Geopolitical agenda. Cancellation will invite economic retribution.

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics